


A Charming Turn of Events

by Ultra



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Happy Ending, Love, Magic, Pre-Series, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-07-24 00:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7487037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU pre-series. The Dark Curse does not go quite according to Regina's plan, but she does manage to rob Snow of her love and happiness, by claiming Charming as her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Charming Turn of Events

The explosion had been spectacular. Regina might have appreciated its force and splendour more if she had remained conscious to see it. Messing too much with the inner workings of the dark curse was always going to be dangerous, and now Rumpelstiltskin had been captured, he was of no help to her. Just days before she planned to cast the spell, to swallow up the Enchanted Forest and plunge everyone into the depths of her curse, Regina had changed her mind a little about how she wished things to be.

Manipulating certain factors had been difficult but nothing she couldn’t handle. The latter stages, the more twists and turns she decided to include, it got more risky all the time. One tweak too far and the very essence of the curse imploded, throwing her not just across the room but out of the reality she knew. Regina woke, with a thumping pain in her head, on the forest floor. She was dressed in her usual elegance but the colours were shimmering silver and white, not the dark red and black she had grown accustomed to lately.

“Regina! My love, are you okay?” he asked as he rushed at her.

Instinctively, she backed away from the figure that appeared between the trees, throwing out an arm to cast a spell upon her attacker.

Nothing happened. What was more startling than the lack of magic was the realisation of who was speaking and what he had actually said. ‘My love’. She was no-one’s love these days, not since Daniel, and yet...

“Regina, please. Speak to me,” he urged her, grabbing her gently but firmly by the upper arms as he searched her eyes for recognition.

“What would you have me say?” she asked too softly, still highly aware of the fact this could be a trick or a trap.

The man who had fast gained the moniker of Prince Charming had never looked at Regina with anything but disgust before. She so easily appeared to hate him in return, and yet, she had to admit, she was somewhat jealous of Snow for catching herself such a man. He was everything a dashing hero ought to be in both looks and manners, and now he was looking to Regina with affection.

“Please, tell me you’re not hurt,” Charming urged her. “I chased away our attackers, but I never meant to leave you behind...”

“I’m fine.” Regina smiled slowly. “Really, I’m fine,” she promised as he returned her smile and grabbed her hands to pull her to her feet.

Regina took a moment to look around and think about what had happened here. She had been trying to alter the curse, to add in extra clauses and changes. Snow’s happiness, she wanted it gone, but at the same time Regina wanted her own joy, her own love. It was impossible to manufacture true love, even with the most powerful of spells. That and raising the dead were just about the only two things Rumpelstilstkin told her magic could not achieve, and yet she had hoped to get around the love rule. It seemed somehow she had now, even if it meant the original dark curse blowing up in her face. Prince Charming was in love with her, she had taken Snow’s place in his heart, and in the other woman’s life by all accounts.

“You do love me, don’t you, Charming?” she asked, coyly as a maid.

His smile was brighter than the sun.

“Could you ever doubt it?” he asked, pulling her close in his arms. “I love you more than anything,” he swore, barely getting a chance to move in for a kiss when Regina did so first, closing the gap between them in double time.

It was not love, not truly, Regina knew. She had a passion for this man and he thought he loved her at least. How long it would last, she hadn’t an idea, but for as long as it did she may as well enjoy it.

“Hey,” he stopped her when her hands strayed, though the heat in his gaze proved he didn’t really want to. “We’ll make time for that later. For now we have to keep moving. Snow will soon know her soldiers failed and will send more. We must be ready.”

Regina tried not to react to his words, to hearing that not only was she now the future Mrs Charming, but that Snow had taken her place too, the ruler of the land, the Queen in her stead.

“She killed her father, and blamed it on me,” said Regina slowly, testing out her own theory of the new history. “Now she means to kill me too.”

“But we won’t let that happen,” Charming insisted, taking her face in his hands. “She may have power, but we have the only real magic in this land, Regina. We have true love.”

Regina tried to remind herself that it wasn’t real, that it was some spell she barely meant to cast and yet... and yet the look in his eyes was such as to make her quite forget herself. She would have to find a way to switch everything back eventually. Though magic didn’t come as easily to her right now, she could relearn it, she was sure. She would have to go back to her place in the castle, cast the actual curse (assuming it still existed) or her revenge would never be truly complete. The thought occurred then that perhaps it was more complete this way than ever before. She had a man that loved her, no doubt friends and allies too. She could regain power with Charming at her side, and they could rule together. Snow White would die, perhaps even at her old lover’s hand, and Regina could watch, laugh, savour every moment of the wretched girl’s demise, then take Charming into her bed. The thought of it sent a delicious shiver down her spine.

“There is nothing we cannot achieve together, my love,” she said, his hand grasped in hers as they set off at a pace. “So let’s get to work.”

_One year later..._

“You are truly magnificent,” said Charming with the widest grin as he joined his wife on the bed.

Regina could not stop laughing and crying at the same time, as she cradled her baby son in her arms and gazed across at her beloved husband. It had seemed like a dream that could not last, this spell she never even meant to cast. Somehow she was back in time, switched with her enemy’s life, it had all been so unexpected and strange, but Regina had adapted as she always did. She worked on a way back for a while, before realising the best answer was simply to move forward. She and Charming, with allies at their side, brought Queen Snow to her knees, and Regina showed no mercy to the woman the land saw as an evil-doer. Now Regina was queen herself again, with a king at her side, and a prince of their own to raise together.

“What shall we call him?” asked Charming then. “We never really decided.”

“Henry,” said Regina. “For my father, if you don’t mind?”

“Of course I don’t mind,” he smiled down at her, leaning over to kiss her lips and then the baby’s tiny head. “Prince Henry, our son.”

“Our son, my love,” she echoed, looking around at the royal bed chamber, filled with flowers, gifts and toys.

It seemed that despite all she had been told before, she could have her happily ever after, after all.


End file.
